Death toll climbs to 11 in Florida condo collapse, 150 missing

Search-and-rescue teams pulled two more sets of remains from the concrete and steel rubble of a partially collapsed Florida condominium tower yesterday, bringing the death toll to 11 with 150 people still listed as missing four days after the disaster.

Pouring rain and slabs of cement hampered round-the-clock efforts to pick through debris left from the unexplained cave-in of nearly half of the 12-floor, 156-unit building, in what may end up as the deadliest unintentional structural failure in U.S. history.

No survivors have been pulled from the ocean-front ruins of the Champlain Towers South condo in the town of Surfside, near Miami, since the first hours after the building abruptly crumbled into a heap early on Thursday as residents slept.

"We have people waiting and waiting and waiting. That is excruciating," Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told an afternoon news briefing on Monday, referring to friends and family members of the missing.

"They are coping with the news that they might not have loved ones come out alive and still hoping that they will," the mayor said. "Their loved ones may come out as body parts."

Rescue crews, including experts sent by Israel and Mexico, were using cranes, dogs and infrared scanners to identify signs of life in the ruins, although hope was diminishing as time wore on.

As darkness fell over the site, more than 100 people gathered somberly, some holding candles, a short distance from where one crane stood illuminated against the night sky. A woman led the group in a meditation, and someone sounded a gong. Behind them, in enormous letters, the word “HOPE” had been inscribed in the sand.

What caused the 40-year-old highrise to give way remained under investigation, but initial attention focused on structural deficiencies identified in an engineer's report three years ago.

Teams from several U.S. government agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Administration, the FBI and the National Institute of Standards and

Technology, were dispatched to Surfside to assist local authorities, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington.

Some relatives of the missing have provided DNA samples to officials for use in positively identifying remains. Family members were permitted to visit the site on Sunday.

Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah said workers have found voids large enough to keep victims alive.

"Not to say that we have seen anyone down there, but we've not gotten to the very bottom," he said.

Jadallah said searchers have heard some sounds, such as tapping or scratching, that could possibly be made by a survivor, though he acknowledged they could also be caused by shifting metal.

A 2018 engineer's report found serious concrete deterioration in the underground parking garage and major damage in a slab beneath the pool deck. The report's author, Frank Morabito, wrote that the deterioration would "expand exponentially" if not repaired.